Comparative Statistics 2002 - Highlights for 2002 — Why So Many Vacant Pulpits? A Look At The Numbers

—Jack Marcum, coordinator, research services

Conventional wisdom in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) holds that there is currently a shortage of ministers — how else to explain the growing number of congregations without pastors? There is some truth in this viewpoint, but only some; the full story is more complex. As I will describe in this essay, the situation is less a shortage of ministers than a coming together of related trends that result in a growing number of very small congregations with limited financial resources at the same time that dual careers and other personal considerations have made ministers without calls more selective in their searches.